And here’s a selection of comments received so far from attendees via our anonymous feedback form:
“I was very sceptical, because of what happened with City of Culture but after attending I felt that we were getting somewhere in the conversations and building a better future for everyone in the city. I do think that this needs to be something regular even if it’s just every two months or three months just to get the ball rolling because sometimes people can feel things are taking the backseat and at the moment I feel that this is of great priority that we gain peoples confidence back in the city that we live in.”
“Not convinced how realistic/ useful an approach to focus on future dreaming as starting point for dialogue within the main event (were expectations raised too high, was this helpful?).”
“I wasn’t sure what to expect, and maybe had a slightly pessimistic idea of what it could be and what it could achieve. However, I ended up really enjoying myself and immediately felt the good vibes in the room from everyone attending. It felt like everyone brought so much passion and positivity to the event and it was infectious to be around. I loved sharing ideas with everyone and hearing what they have to say, it felt like everyone was on a similar wavelength and watching people meet and come up with new ideas together, collaboratively was inspiring.”
“I came away feeling reassured that the city’s cultural sector, while fragile, is quietly positive about the future, with a strong sense of solidarity and determination.”
“A positive experience, long on rhetoric, short on actionable ideas.”
“With such a mammoth undertaking and so much information and points of view being shared, I thought the event was managed and collated really well. It could have been overwhelming but it wasn’t…Although I am up to speed with the cultural life of the city I really knew very little about policy strategies and titles. The main hope is that there is some momentum and political will (not easy in the current climate I know), to realise the fantastic ideas that came out of the meeting.”
“I thought it was a brilliant and well thought out event. I thought it was particularly good that not only were creative freelancers and organisations present, there was also attendance from Council workers and people that ordinarily we find a bit of a communication gap with….it felt like a caring environment where everyone had a voice and we were sharing ideas, not having them simply presented to us by people “in charge”. I felt heard, and I felt energised to listen and really hear the things people were contributing.”
The Culture Works Collective 
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